Dash TV #34 Old Tucson

Perhaps you will recognize some of these:

2011

2011

2011

2007

Decisions and Ripple Effects

          How many of our decisions affect others?  Choosing to have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich over tuna fish may not have any kind of a ripple effect as making a choice to drive or walk toward oncoming traffic. 

          Yesterday morning Balras Sing Dhillon had stopped his car just outside of Myrtle Creek.  Whether it was a conscience decision or not is unknown. 

Police received a call about a vehicle stopped in the northbound left lane of the interstate approximately six in the morning and went to investigate. When they approached the vehicle, the driver took off. 

The driver continued for another mile before crashing into the medium.  He must have climbed over the medium after he abandoned his car.  Was he running from the police?  Was he so disoriented that he didn’t know what he was doing?  I believe the latter as it is said he ran onto the freeway and was struck by multiple cars that were going southbound.  Just before he died several people were affected by the decisions he had made.

Drivers between Exits 119 and 113 had nowhere to go.  They were stuck in traffic – lives were changed.  I do not know how many jobs were affected.  I know there were schools that were missing a number of instructors for one to three hours (depending on what time each school started).

The decision made created lost time – not only for the teachers but their students as well.  In one school the students of the absent instructors were required to go to the gym.  There they were given the choice to participate in physical activity or watch from the bleachers.  It was suggested they do homework or study – which many were obviously not doing as they surfed on cell phones or visited.

It was a weird day for everyone.  Instructors.  Students.  Aides.  Other community members who had been called to assist until the instructors arrived.

Often the decisions we make – whether consciously or not – affect others. The driver was a 35-year-old man from Lincoln, California.  We don’t know what brought him to Oregon.  That is what the media said.  The fatal accident is still under investigation as so much is unknown.

I am reminded of another incident also involving a car.  The driver had not taken his medication and was not supposed to be driving.  He wasn’t in his right mind when he made his decisions.  He drove onto the sidewalk and hit some students who were walking along 4000 West as they were returning home from Kearns Junior High.  Some media indicated there were seven students.  Other said five. 

I don’t recall the year it happened.  But I remember seeing the emergency lights spinning in the dark.  The road had been closed for more than 24 hours.  All the students involved had been taken to the hospital.  None of them were kept overnight as I recall. I don’t know what emotional scars were created or how long they lasted.

The one thing about Utah is there are alternatives.  There are back roads and exits that will still allow one to go in all four directions.  Here, in Oregon, there are not a lot of back roads or options.  We may think our decisions might not matter – but they do.

What is up with the lower case letter “a”?

          When we are taught to read the letters will sometimes give us problems.  Vowels don’t always make the same sound.  The pronunciation of “a’ sounds the same in words like “apple”  and  “cat” but differs when saying words like: “clay” or “talk”.  What’s even more confusing is seeing the letter “a” and writing it in a different way. 

          I don’t remember questioning that as a child, but I do as an adult. With so many fonts, the appearance of letters might appear differently from the other.  For example this font which I am currently using versus what comes up automatically in my computer.  I like this font so much better.  The “a” looks like what I’ve been taught to write, not this foreign letter that has an extra hook on top. 

          Who changed the font?  Who decided that we would learn to read “a” but write “a”? And why have our minds accepted both? Perhaps it’s designed to teach us about diversity.  If we can accept the differences among letters, why would we not do the same for people?

https://www.rocketspace.com/corporate-innovation/why-diversity-and-inclusion-driving-innovation-is-a-matter-of-life-and-death

A   A   A   A  a   a   a  a   G  G  G  g   g   J  J  J  

Dash TV #33 Tucson, Arizona

          I don’t know how often the boys went to Arizona to visit Roland’s sister, Jean before I joined the family.  I know Biff had lived with her for a while – perhaps a couple of years.  He had returned to live with Roland shortly before I met them all.

I remember driving to Tucson with Roland to pick the boys up three times after summer was over.  The first time we had gone all the way to Tucson to get them.  The second time we met them in Panquitch, Utah, believing it was a half-way point.  The third time was further down south at Glen Canyon Dam.  

We toured the facility before we parted ways and made observations on how much both Tony and Randy had grown. 

          Biff asked, “What about me?  Haven’t I grown?” His hair was like a small “Sideshow Bob” afro.  He was taller due to his hair.  But once he got it cut, he’d be back to his same size. He had also asked Roland if I was pregnant.  I was, but did not know it at the time.

          I have been to Tucson five times to visit Roland’s family.  The first time was before we were married when we had gone to get the boys so that they could start school.  All three of them would be starting junior high. I really don’t remember many details except that the boys wanted me to move faster when I was behind the wheel.  But that was on the return.  I was pretty wiped out during our first visit.

          The second time was when Jenna was three.  Roland and I took his mother to Old Tucson shortly after we arrived.  We allowed Jenna to stay home and get to know her cousins.  I don’t know how many pictures I took of Old Tucson.  And one who has internet can look up photos or may be familiar with scenes from many westerns or Little House on the Prarie.  I will not put all the photos I took in this post, but will create another post of some of the ones that I took (or were taken of me)

When we came home from Old Tucson, we found Jenna painting Kristen’s nails.  

I think we spent two or three days and Jenna had a blast getting to know her cousins – so much that she and John decided that she just stay and live with him.  They decided that if they dressed Jenna in John’s clothes that we would mistake her for him and wouldn’t take her with us. 

Of course we knew it was her.  They were both disappointed that they hadn’t fooled us and so she hid in his room.  She would not budge not even to say good-bye to Roland and me – or his mom who we were taking with us.  I did finally manage to trick her into either saying good-bye to a beloved stuffed animal that we had taken with us, or to retrieve her so that it too could live in Arizona.  When she got out to the car, I seat-belted her in and she cried for a good portion of the ride. 

When we stopped across the Utah border, I asked if she would like for us to buy a cactus for her (as she had been hinting for one the entire time we were in Arizona).  But she saw something else that she wanted more than the cactus.  We ended up buying a stick horse which she named “Pinky” (the same name as the small bear we had brought with us) I think she ended up giving that same name to four of her toys.

Two years later we returned for Uncle Mike’s funeral.  It was in January and the weather felt nice compared to Salt Lake – though those who lived in Arizona thought it was cold.  It appears I took a lot of pictures of the family though we were not there for long.  We left right after the funeral.

The following year we spent some time with the family at San Xavier.  As we walked through there were several statues of different saints.  Roland told Jenna that if she was good her Aunt Linda would tell her the names of each of the saints represented at which point Linda slugged Roland and he laughed.

We also went to Old Tucson as a family.  I think there were eight adults and three children who went. We all ended up riding the carousel and had stopped off for pizza on the way back to Jean’s house.  Jenna and I wanted pineapple on our pizza but Aunt Linda wouldn’t hear of it.  So Roland purchased two more pizzas so that Jenna and I could have our pineapple.  Guess whose pizzas were first to be eaten?

The pictures indicate that we had Tony with us.  As I recall, Biff could not get the time off work and Randy must have been on his mission.  I took more pictures of the family and our activities.  I am grateful to have the photographic memories.

My last visit to Tucson was in 2012.  That time we had Randy and Biff with us.  We had gone there for mom’s birthday (see this post)

Grocery Shopping

          Going shopping is always a major ordeal – no matter what kind of shopping it is.  Jenna tolerates shopping at best.  I loathe it.  Clothes shopping, home improvement, groceries . .  I hate them all.  Roland, on the other hand, loves to shop.  When he as at a store, he believes the clock stops and takes his sweet time reading every ingredient .  I wish he was as conscience about reading the price and comparing it to our budget.  I often do go shopping with him just to make certain he doesn’t overspend. 

         

          Once the groceries are purchased there is the matter of packing them into the car – and if they don’t all fit in the trunk, they get to ride on the back seat of our car – often next to Jenna who usually does her best to get out of going with us – but sometimes it is her that tags along with Roland while I stay home.

          Pulling into the driveway means the biggest ordeal of our grocery shopping is near its end – but is often more time consuming than the shopping itself:  Putting the Groceries Away

                            This is our routine:

          Roland will take them out of the trunk and back seat and bring them as far as the front deck.  Jenna than has the honor and privilege of taking them from the porch to the kitchen table (or drop off on the couch if food is going into the pantry or non –food items are going into a different room) and I get to put them away.  Slice open the packaging so we won’t have to do so later on (although I did leave both cartons of egg nog in the box and left the plastic on the eggs as there are over 2 dozen exposed eggs on top) and repackage meat if necessary.

          More than half our purchase was for food storage.  Roland assigned Jenna that job.  Lucky her.  We had just gone through the pantry the other day and I wrote down all of the items that were on the shelf and made a list.  I added to the list after the groceries were put away – I don’t know how accurately.  I guessed at the number of bottles or cans came in each case because it didn’t say on the receipts.  Oh, what fun!

Two More Words

Triskaidekaphobia – this was the word I learned on Friday the 13^th after the instructor gave some quick trivia to her students about Friday the 13^th. Triskaidekaphobia is the fear of the number 13.  Of course Jenna was already familiar with the word as long words are a part of her vocabulary. She doesn’t think it’s as fun to say as Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia, however.

Evidently I had never either learned about Friday the 13^th or just hadn’t commited it to memory about the reasons behind the superstition and was surprised to learn about the Christian involvement as Judas Iscariot (number 13 in the group with Christ and his 12 apostles) and because of the cruxifixion happening on Friday. 

          She also wrote the date without dashes 91319 – and pointed out the number reads the same forward as it does backward – which brings us to our second word: Palindrome

I have been doing some wordsearch puzzles and the directions for one was to find 12 palindromes: that is 12 words that are spelled  the same forward as it is backward.  Some of the words I remember were: mom, kayak, wow, civic and noon.  I had learned about palindromes quite a while ago, but had forgotten the name of the word. I enjoy learning more as I get older than I did as a youth.  I’m grateful that Jenna enjoys learning.

Lessons of Our Lives

          Roland was watching a documentary the other day about the brain and its functions.  The first series was about the hippocampus and explained how sometimes our memories are distorted.  In other words, we sometimes remember details but do not relate them accurately, or else we are accurate but the memories are not our personal memories but rather someone else’s.  Examples that were used came from those who were affected by September 11, 2001 so much that they felt they had been there when the towers were struck and crumbled.  Sometimes our memories are fabricated.

          I notice the “fabrication” each time Roland relates experiences about our marriage or when he relates memories of the boys.  He always tells it a bit differently until after a while it doesn’t sound like there's much truth to it. But then again, I probably do that too - especially as I get older.  I notice that I don't remember all the details as vividly as I did at one time.

          Earlier last month, Roland bore his testimony in church and tried to relate the experience we had shared with the boys during a family home evening found at the end of this post.  He told about how each boy had been given twenty dollars and what the results were and made a comparison to their lives today.  While the analogy of his fabricated story seemed impressive, there were some inaccuracies – even from the way he tried to compare it to the scriptures found in Matthew 25 (he had retold that inaccurately as well) which is all the more reason each of us need to write things down.

           

          I know if I don’t have the opportunity of writing my thoughts down when they occur, I forget the details.  Believe it or not, I did not complete my original thoughts on Bandon but still managed to get out five posts.  But I know they weren’t as accurate as they would have been if I could have recorded it as it was happening.  Even Corey has been guilty of this (see here) – commenting that his head was full of ideas and he wanted to write future posts for so many subjects including my daughter’s baptism.  I looked forward to reading his thoughts, but alas, they never got posted as the details had been removed from his hippocampus.

          The point is: what we perceive as facts change over time.  Roland had the boys with our youngest making lots of money, our oldest doing okay but only breaking even, however he had our middle son spot on as he drank “his talent” – hid it within himself.  He compared it to the success that our youngest seems to be doing financially, our oldest living with his in-laws (his late wife’s parents) with his girlfriend and daughter – never having settled on just one job.  And then our middle son who has been on probation from his job and is currently on welfare.

          My oldest son seems to be living a soap opera kind of life – which I have touched on a little bit. Our youngest just moved to New York and has moved into an existing home.  I thought it an interesting analogy as Roland related their “talent usage” compared to real life.

I'd Rather Work Than Wait

          I think Monday might be the best day for subbing in the schools.  It’s right after the weekend.  Some of the aides would like to extend their time off.  The last time I had subbed at Coffenberry, I was asked by another aide if I had picked her shift up for the 16^th.  Unfortunately, I was told to keep that day open as Roland had a doctor’s appointment in the Big City of Roseburg and would be sedated and would need me to drive him home.  I told her I would not be able to do her shift.

On Sunday night I received another request – also from Coffenberry.  I would have liked to have said yes.  I had even double-checked with Roland who really would like to see an extra income.  Her name was on the sub list yesterday morning.  I felt bad.  Once again it feels like I am the only sub in the system.  I’m not as I met another in Canyonville.  Still, they are hurting for subs again.

We left the house at 7:30 a.m, and did not return to Myrtle Creek until 1:30.  There’s six hours of my life that I will never get back.  Not to see that I didn’t want to be with Roland or ensure his safety.  I was in the waiting room.  I, fortunately, had brought a kindle, a book, my journal – so I did have things to do.  It may have not been that big of an ordeal for Roland who was in a trance but had been told later on why the delay.

It seemed like whatever machine the staff had intended to use for the test results wasn’t working properly.  Someone from Eugene had been called to come look at it.  Eugene is over an hour away from Roseburg.  If I understand correctly, Roland was out of it the entire time and did not realize that much time had even passed.  I had looked at the time at 9:00 a.m. and then again at 11:30. I had become concerned.

Meanwhile, I received a request to work at Canyonville – which I would not have done even if I had not gone to Roseburg as the Coffenberry request had come first.  Initially, the Relief Society presidency met each Monday morning to discuss issues which I, myself, have now become a part of.  I guess that is why I couldn’t get a job in accounting – not that I really wanted one.  But an accountant’s pay would be nice.  Having the money to renovate just one of the Brady’s rooms would be nice, let alone the entire house. (see here)  

The weather was unique.  First was our drive to.  The fog was dense on one side.  No landscape could be seen.  The other side could be seen in the morning sun.  So weird that only interstate 5 separated the two.  By afternoon it was raining heavy in Roseburg.  Buckets.  30 mph was too fast for that rain.  I stopped at Arby’s in Winston.  The rain wasn’t falling in Winston.  Theoretically, Roland is not supposed to drive for 24 hours.  When we were at Arby’s I gave him the choice of either driving himself or taking the long way home with me behind the wheel. He did not wish to go the long way home and drove himself. He was fine at the time but is in a deep sleep right now. 

I have not seen any positions available for today.  A friend asked if I would spend an hour or so with her this morning.  I will not be working on Wednesdays as I asked the Relief Society if we could meet on that day instead.  I probably will be able to work on Wednesdays should I accept some long term assignments as I did last year.  Wednesday is not my favorite day to work as it is a short day and the parking lot is full of cars.  One time I had to wait for parents to move their cars before I could get out.  I don’t much care for school traffic.

Dash TV36: Ricks’ Outdoor Family Program

            Our family vacationed every year.  Often we went to either Disneyland or Yellowstone National Park, but there were also times when we did something different.  One of those vacations was sponsored through then Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho.  I don’t remember where exactly the “Outdoor Family Program” – took place.  I'm guessing somewhere in Idaho.

            I think Kayla was five at the time.  I don’t remember how many families were involved – though I can remember six.  We were all put in cabins which surrounded the shower area and bathrooms with flushable toilets. There were portapotties available, but they needed to be moved as they were pretty full to almost overflowing.  It was disgusting. 

The cabin we were in was pretty much wall to wall bed.  There were five of them fit together like a U shape (if I remember correctly) and six of us.  Patrick and I were assigned the beds at either end.  Kayla and Corey slept between my mom and dad on the three other beds all smashed together.  There was a floor to put our suitcases down and then it was a matter of shifting over mattresses.  Good thing we were a close knit family. 

a rough illustration

            It may not have been as much of a vacation for dad who had to get up early along with the other fathers and only one sister who had brought her five children.  I think they were all under the age of eight.   They would go and learn the day’s activities and explain the agenda to their families.  We got to go horseback riding, repelling and canoeing. 

            Frank was the name of the student who was responsible for harnessing those who wanted to participate and would say “Do you trust me?”

            With each person who was guided over the edge, Corey would say “I trust Frank” which would continue louder on each person until finally it was his turn. 

            Frank said, “Do you trust me?” and Corey responded, “Sort of.”

            There were three people in each canoe, and a really low beam.  Some chose to go under beam.  Our guide pulled over before we got to the beam and said, “That looks too low”

            One canoe managed to get under it but the second one tipped.  Two of the passengers were not very happy. 

            I think the program was an entire week, but maybe not.  I don’t remember all the details but I do know we held church services.  We had gone a ways from the camp and bread had not been brought for the sacrament and crackers were used in the bread’s place.  I remember Lance was one who blessed the sacrament.  I don’t recall who the other was.

            Lance had come with a couple from either North or South Carolina.  They had a young son named David.  I think Lance was just a friend. I remember one of the sponsors searching for muscle power.  As he searched around the group he said, “I need four strong guys and David to help me”  I thought it was funny.  

            Overall, I don’t think it felt like much like a vacation for my dad, but I know Corey and I had fun.  I think Patrick did to a degree, but he hated the mosquitoes.  I remember when he returned from the showers, his back was covered with mosquitoes.  He didn’t think it was cool to take a shower and then douse himself in a can of mosquito repellent.  It didn’t even matter which brand.  Mosquitoes travel for miles just to sample Patrick’s blood.  I didn’t have to worry about spraying myself – especially with Patrick around. 

32 jars and counting

Roland decided that we would make grape jelly yesterday.  We used two gallons of concentrate to fill over 30 jars.  I don't know why he dressed up - maybe because he thought his shirt would hide the stains?

sterilizing the jars

ladling jelling into jar

it amazed me how we could fill the jars this full

and have so much space when turned upside down

 We still have over two gallons of concentrate. We'll have to make more jelly another day.

Early This Year

The primary program was today.  Definitely the earliest time ever - especially with this ward.  The song leader, pianist, primary president and one of her counselors were on the stage along with the ten children who make up the primary.  It was fun watching Jenna sing along with as much as she was able.

I am not the only one who has seemed to lose track of this month.  Each third Sunday there is a linger longer - but not today.  It was announced in the program, but evidently we were not the only ones who had forgotten.  

I had gone out to the car to put my bag in the trunk and Jenna came out before I had the opportunity of returning to the building.  Jenna LOVES linger longer but told me that it had been cancelled.  Tough break.  I should have retrieved my camera from the trunk, but did not - otherwise I'd be sharing a picture of the seven turkeys I had to wait to cross the road before I continued on my drive.

taken 09/18/2019

The Fruit Dance

          I spent the bulk of yesterday finishing pulling grapes off the stems and Roland smashed them all and heated them without boiling them and we made just over six gallons of concentrate.  We have two juices set aside for drinking.  He says we will turn the rest into jam, but that is what he said last year and we only made eight jars.  He found it irresistible not to drink it all.  It is really good and worth the mess.

 

boca grapes

paper towel on stained counter

cheese cloth top left side

permanently attached cutting board

  

my shirt

          About the title of my blog – well . . .  Roland and I had gone to bed late last night.  Late for us anyway.  Our automatic alarms did not go off at 5:00 a.m. I had told Jenna earlier this month that if there was no evidence of our being awake by 5:30 that it would be her job to wake us up – which she did.  I was so NOT ready to get up.  
          I had my eyes shut when Roland turned on the light.  I could see the light through my eyelids and black dots flashed under my eyes like strobed lights and with each strobe the dots multiplied and looked smaller.  But they weren’t black dots after all.  I could visualize blueberries and grapes dancing together.  They started out as two, but more “couples” joined them on the dance floor, until finally they faded.  Until finally I might have gone back to sleep but Roland had left the light on.  I got up for a family prayer. My plan was to turn off the light and return to bed.  Wouldn’t have mattered.  My alarm went off after Roland and Jenna left the house so he could take her to the church for early morning seminary.